[palmotea]

> There are only 15 countries worldwide with a higher defence budget than Canada so the budget is hardly tiny...

Canada is pretty big: it's the second-largest country by land-area. Surely there must be certain defense expenditures that need to scale with that?

> In actuality, Canada spends more than twice as much per capita than the world average.

That seems like a twisted measure, due to 1) the land-area issue I mentioned above, and 2) there are a lot of countries in the world that are small and poor, and thus cannot afford a military that can actually defend themselves.

> The only realistic threat to Canada is the new one from Donald Trump...

That's actually not a realistic threat, either.

[watwut]

How is USA not realistic threat? They are already going out of their way to harm and weaken Canada. They are openly talking about expanding. They are already commiting war crimes in pacific and have fascist leadership. With president likely having alzeihmer or dementia or other mental healt issue

[palmotea]

Trump says a lot of things, but he pretty much always chickens out. I am certain he'd chicken out of invading Canada, if that's something he was ever seriously considering. And I doubt he's seriously considering it: he appears to believe being "unpredictable" gives him advantage in negotiations, saying outrageous things makes him "unpredictable."

[lenkite]

He is not chickening out in committing international piracy and abduction. Annexation is just a step away from that. Greenland is a soft, conquerable target - can hoist the Stars&Stripes and stomp the natives under boots without much trouble. Canada, on the other hand, is bloody hard and conquest won't happen.

[palmotea]

> He is not chickening out in committing international piracy and abduction.

The boat attacks are small actions, unlikely to result in any consequences. Also I haven't followed it super-closely, but I believe the claim is those are cartel drug-smuggling boats, and I haven't seen anything indicating that's wrong (e.g. they bombed an innocent fishing boat). No one cries for the poor, grotesquely guilty cartels. Trump will do low-cost stuff like that. Also piracy requires plunder. Blowing boats up isn't piracy, because there's no plunder.

No one liked Maduro, and he probably stole his last election (at least), so no one's really crying for him. Are you?

> Greenland is a soft, conquerable target - can hoist the Stars&Stripes and stomp the natives under boots without much trouble.

Didn't Trump already back down on that?

> Canada, on the other hand, is bloody hard and conquest won't happen.

So you concede my point? Even with Canada's military exactly as it is right now, there's no realistic military threat to it from Trump, because he's never going to commit to anything that costly.

[lenkite]

> The boat attacks are small actions, unlikely to result in any consequences. Also I haven't followed it super-closely, but I believe the claim is those are cartel drug-smuggling boats

Lol, no. Oil tankers are not "cartel drug-smuggling boats". This U.S. administration lies like the Prince of Hell. Another oil tanker was captured by piracy a couple of days ago.

> No one liked Maduro, and he probably stole his last election (at least), so no one's really crying for him. Are you?

Americans don't get to decide that. And most especially not members of this corrupt administration who make Maduro look like an angel.

> So you concede my point? Even with Canada's military exactly as it is right now, there's no realistic military threat to it from Trump, because he's never going to commit to anything that costly.

He is crazy enough to sanction Canadian shipping. You don't need to attack land when you can attack shipping and tighten the screws.